[1094] Examples of working on an existing repository or starting a new repository

Example 01: Contribute to an existing repository

• The repository is already on GitHub.
• Obtain the URL of the repository.
• Using git clone, you can download all the files within the repository to the corresponding directory.
• Perfrom a series of operations on the repository using git.
• Finally, push those changes back to the remote repository on GitHub.

# download a repository on GitHub to our machine
# Replace `owner/repo` with the owner and name of the repository to clone
git clone https://github.com/owner/repo.git
 
# change into the `repo` directory
cd repo
 
# create a new branch to store any new changes
git branch my-branch
 
# switch to that branch (line of development)
git checkout my-branch
 
# make changes, for example, edit `file1.md` and `file2.md` using the text editor
 
# stage the changed files
git add file1.md file2.md
 
# take a snapshot of the staging area (anything that's been added)
git commit -m "my snapshot"
 
# push changes to github
git push --set-upstream origin my-branch

Example 02: Start a new repository and publish it to GitHub

First, you will need to create a new repository on GitHub. For more information, see Hello World. Do not initialize the repository with a README, .gitignore or License file. This empty repository will await your code.

# create a new directory, and initialize it with git-specific functions
git init my-repo
 
# change into the `my-repo` directory
cd my-repo
 
# create the first file in the project
touch README.md
 
# git isn't aware of the file, stage it
git add README.md
 
# take a snapshot of the staging area
git commit -m "add README to initial commit"
 
# provide the path for the repository you created on github
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/YOUR-REPOSITORY-NAME.git
 
# push changes to github
git push --set-upstream origin main

Example 03: contribute to an existing branch on GitHub

This example assumes that you already have a project called repo on the machine and that a new branch has been pushed to GitHub since the last time changes were made locally.

# change into the `repo` directory
cd repo
 
# update all remote tracking branches, and the currently checked out branch
git pull
 
# change into the existing branch called `feature-a`
git checkout feature-a
 
# make changes, for example, edit `file1.md` using the text editor
 
# stage the changed file
git add file1.md
 
# take a snapshot of the staging area
git commit -m "edit file1"
 
# push changes to github
git push